Paper Flowers

Oh. My. Gosh.

Sarah is getting married this weekend, and we have been working on completing all the decorations and such.  True to Sarah form, she decided to go a bit untraditional in the flower arrangements...and make them entirely out of crepe paper.  I stopped by the house today to help with wedding prep and saw the completed flowers/bouquets today for the first time.  I was absolutely floored.  They are GORGEOUS!

I believe Sarah derived her inspiration from Martha Steward Weddings, which has some great ideas and templates for making your own crepe paper flowers.  Good old Martha Stewart. :)

Here are some pictures of the flowers she has made thus far (she crafted her own wedding bouquet and all of the buttoniers), plus some pics of my own attempts (I was assigned the peonies that will go at the end of each row of chairs).  Enjoy!

Buttoniers :

Sarah's Bouquet (AH!):

Extras for decorating tables:

Flowers in progress:

Roses and Tulips

Peonies

My finished peonies:

Mom's finished rose:

The crepe paper is so fun to work with.  It reminds me a bit of fabric--pliable and mold-able.  In order to make the flowers look more realistic, you actually stretch and shape the petals.  Isn't that cool?

This picture has nothing to do with flowers, but I think it is pretty great.  Thanks Fifi!

Have a fantastic day!

~Bessie

Sarah's Dress

I found it!  I finally found my camera!  And just in the nick of time, too--Sarah's dress is on its way to being finished and delivered to the bride-to-be.

Sarah and I went through hundreds of patterns to get an idea of what she wanted.  We came up with a sketch for a sun dress with a sweetheart neckline, a bit of a scoop neck in the back, and a simple A-line skirt.  During the fitting process, we decided to tweak our design a little bit by adding a midriff section (with some piping for definition) and putting some fine gathers underneath the bust instead if darts.

I used the bodice from this pattern as the foundation for my design:

Sarah selected a beautiful Michael Miller cotton print for her dress called Meadowstreet Poppy Parade.  So pretty!  There is some left over, which I am planning to make a skirt out of for myself! :D

Here is a picture with bad lighting but a good idea of how the dress will look on (skirt has not yet been attached here):

And here is a picture with good lighting, but the dress on a hanger (much truer to the colors of the fabric):

I am currently working on the lining.  After that, I'll install the zipper, hem the dress, and all shall be finished!

Btw, check out what Davis and I found a thrift store the other day...

What do you think of THAT?

~Bessie

Oh no!

I have so many things I want to post about...

~Bought a few hundred vintage patterns the other day from a lady on a farm in south Georgia
~Making a honeymoon dress for my sister -- very cute!
~Our two new dogs, Desmond and Rousseau (yes, we love Lost!)
~My temporary sewing room
~Growing herbs

...and much more.  Unfortunately, I have lost my camera.  AH!

Sigh.  Alas.  Certainly I will find it soon...

~Bessie

Another Great Barn-Sale Find!

This will be handy!

I've been wanting one of these for awhile.  I love that it was still in its original box!

Thanks, barn sale. :)

~Bessie

Percolatin'

Have you ever made coffee in a percolator?   I must confess, I am something of a coffee snob (yes, I worked at Starbucks for awhile and have a thing for French presses).   In my humble opinion, coffee is at its best when It is smooth and black and bursting with flavor—no cream or sugar to lighten things up for me.  For awhile my preferred method of brewing was the French press, but now I use my percolator almost exclusively.  Why?  Well…

First of all, I love the way an old-fashioned percolator looks.  Mine is from the 60’s, as is apparent from its design.  My mom laughed when I first made her coffee in it--she told me her mother had one just like it and used it to make coffee every morning. J

Secondly, a percolator—in my experience—makes excellent coffee.  Quite possibly the best coffee I’ve ever tasted.  Oh goodness, it’s yummy!  Don’t get me wrong—I still enjoy and appreciate a nice French press.  But coffee in a percolator is a little lighter--no quick so thick and heavy.  

After doing some research on percolating, I realized that most coffee experts and snobs (remember, I am a coffee snob too) very much disagree with my high estimation of the percolator (see here and here for example).  I can understand the reasoning behind this—the water gets hotter than is desirable (when brewing coffee, the water should not get hot enough to boil), which causes it to extract too much acidity from the grounds.  This creates a coffee that is bitter and unpleasant to drink.  Or at least that’s what they say.  However, like I mentioned above, I have had only good experiences with my percolator and intend to go right on enjoying it. J

 What's your favorite method of brewing coffee?

~Bessie

Treasure

Davis and I went to see our friend at the barn sale last weekend.  We scrounged around a bit, and found some sturdy old tools and an awesome old galvanized steel washtub.  I asked the owner if he ever comes across sewing patterns, and he told me that he does from time to time, but that his sister (who quilts and sews) usually snatches them up.  He said he'd call me next time he found any.

We looked for a little while longer, and I happened to spy a dusty brown shoe box sitting on one of the tool shelves that was tied up with a brittle strip of cloth.  This was intriguing--I walked over and untied it, eager to see what was inside.  The box was filled with rolls of antique newspaper, tied up with antique strips of cloth similar to the one that tied the box shut.  The cloth ties were all different prints -- much older than feedsack.  The newspaper clippings, I noticed at first glance, looked to be from the early twentieth century.  I didn't need to know anything else--I bought the box for something like $3, excited as can be.  Old newspapers are so fascinating.

Once we loaded up our booty and got in the car to leave, I opened up my treasure box and untied one of the newspaper bundles.  What was this?  The first piece I unrolled was cut into the shape of...a sewing pattern piece!  A collar or facing, to be exact.  Oh my goodness -- this was a box full of patterns! You can imagine my joy. :D

Below are some pictures of one of the best finds I have ever found.  Enjoy!

This is the only bundle that dates back to the '40's.  Check out this girl's playing card bathing suit!

More to come soon about wedding/house! :D

~Bessie

Whew

It's been a little over a month since the wedding, and things are just now beginning to seem a bit calmer.  My husband and I just bought a darling house up in the mountains, and have been very busy stripping wall paper, painting, changing faucets, and building a big fence for the goaties.  Needless to say, I haven't had much time to blog! 

The wedding was beautiful--everything I hoped and imagined it would be.  Once we get all settled in, I will be doing a series of posts on the wedding and how we did most things by hand, maintaining both a low budget and a lovely, homespun atmosphere.  I'll also be posting here-and-there about our new house and the make-over process going on there right now. :)

For right now, though, I am going to be busy busy busy making our new house into a home!

Much love,

Bessie